Tooth Ache
by SkinXLess
Summary: A sleep deprived Lily decides that 2 a.m. is a good a time as ever to do her laundry. She runs into an equally as sleep deprived James Potter. (2 a.m. college laundry AU)


Lily Evans couldn't sleep.

It wasn't because finals were coming up (though they were). It wasn't because her suitemates were having loud and aggressive sex at two in the morning and the sounds of headboards, bed springs, and fake moaning was driving her _mad_ (thought it was). It wasn't even because that fit bloke in her Romantics Literature class had recently acquired an equally fit girlfriend (though, okay, that _did_ bother her).

No, normally Lily Evans could sleep through anything – earthquakes, hurricanes, her sister Petunia's incessant criticism. So, what was keeping her up so late?

Her bloody wisdom teeth.

She had awoken the day before with a throbbing pain on the lower right side of her jaw. Her third molar was inflamed, and it hurt like hell. Being the weekend, she couldn't even get in to see a dentist until Monday.

So how did she cope with the pain induced insomnia? By doing her laundry, of course. She loaded up the weeks' worth of dirty clothes and headed for the laundry room in the basement.

The room was quiet, the florescent lights casting an eerie glow on the sterile looking room – white tiles, white machines, greying walls. She loaded up her clothes, then settled in for the long wait. She brought a book to pass the time. Jumping up onto the counter in the middle of the room, she began to read.

She was doing an alright job – the pain in her jaw only causing her to reread half the sentences – when a loud noise startled her. A giant laundry basket came crashing through the door and careening to the ground. The lanky man behind it managing to catch himself on the door before he met the same fate as his clothes, which were now strewn everywhere. "Fuck," he muttered, surveying the damage.

"It's not going to pick itself up," Lily said, placing her book in her lap.

The man looked up, blushing furiously. "I didn't realize anyone was here."

"Clearly."

He dropped to his knees, haphazardly sweeping his clothes back into his basket. Lily took the time to survey him. His glasses were slipping down his crooked nose, and his limbs seemed a bit too big for his body. Form the looks of his hair – dark and extremely tousled – he had just woken up. Although, that could've been a stylistic choice. Some guys liked having perpetually messy hair. He rose, and Lily took note at how tall her was. She liked her men tall.

He set to work emptying his basket into the nearest open washer, not even bothering to separate his whites. She tsked as she turned back to her book.

"What?" the man called. "I can feel you judging me."

"Have you ever done laundry before?" she asked.

"Of course, I have," He said before opening his bottle of detergent and just pouring some in.

"Sure," Lily said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were the laundry police." The man shot back as he closed the lid.

"The laundry police?" Lily repeated. "Is that the best you can do?"

The man jumped up onto the other end of the counter. "It's very early and I am operating on zero sleep, so forgive me for not being at full quipping potential right now. I assure you that if you find me sometime tomorrow, I will give you the verbal sparring of your life."

"Is that a promise?"

He surveyed her again. She knew how she must look to him with her flaming hair pulled up in a messy bun and her old pair of her dad's sweatpants. He must think her a right mess. "Yeah," he said at last. "It's a promise."

She turned back to her book as he pulled out his phone. Alter a few minutes, he spoke again. "What are you reading?"

" _Pride and Prejudice,_ " she answered. "It's for my Romantic Literature course."

He scoffed. "An English major. Of course."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

He ruffled his hair as he turned to face her. "Just that, you know, you have that air about you. The stuffy pretentious air."

"Stuffy and pretentious? And what's your major, then?"

He puffed out his chest. "Maths."

She let out a bark of laughter, the force of it hurting her jaw. "Naturally. That explains your judgment and arrogance."

"You're calling me judgmental and arrogant, really?"

"You called me stuffy and pretentious." She pointed out.

"You've been critical of me since I walked in the room."

"Technically, you crashed into the room."

"See," he pointed at her as if she had proved his point. "There you go again."

"Fine," she conceded. "Maybe I have been harsh on you. Let's start over," she extended her hand. "I'm Lily Evans, and you are?"

He took her hand. "James Potter."

She made a mental note to look him up on Facebook later. "And what brings you to the laundry room at this ungodly hour, James Potter."

He gestured to the washers. "Laundry."

"No one does their laundry at two a.m. on purpose. There has to be a reason."

"What's your reason then?" He asked. He moved closer to the middle of the table and she followed suit. They were now sitting cross-legged in front of each other, knees touching. If her jaw didn't ache so badly, Lily would've appreciated the _Sixteen Candles_ -ness of it all.

"Wisdom teeth," she said, pointing to her face.

He winced. "Ouch. I remember having mine out. They were impacted. I was awake the whole time."

"You were not." She said. They didn't do surgery on you when you were awake, did they?

"Was too." He said. "It was cheaper to do it with just local anesthesia and laughing gas."

"Oh my god, that must've been so bizarre." She couldn't even imagine that. She could barely sit through a filling!

"Oh, it was, believe me." he picked up his phone, scrolling through it. Finally, he held it out, showing it to her. "Look at how badly my face was swollen. My best mate Sirius teased me about it for weeks."

It was selfie or him laying down, his cheeks an angry shade of red and swollen to half their side. "You look like a chipmunk!" she squealed.

"Alright, enough." He took the phone back and she noticed the tips of his ears turning pink.

"So…" she prompted. "Why are you up?"

He looked away sheepishly. "It's a little embarrassing, actually."

"Go on," she pressed.

"Okay, fine, but you can't laugh. I locked myself out…yesterday."

She just looked at him, "Excuse me, but what?"

"My roommate and I were both going home for the weekend. I was in the middle of loading up my car, hence the laundry, when he left. He assumed I was already gone, so he locked the door. I left my keys in the room."

"And you've just been wandering around all day, doing nothing?"

He nodded. "I've been in the library, mostly, playing on the computer."

"Why not just go to the RA and have them unlock it for you?"

"Funny thing about that," he said, ruffling his hair again. It must've been a nervous tic. "You can only do it five times before they start charging you."

"You've already locked yourself out five times?" she asked incredulously. "God, it's only the first semester!"

He held up his hands defensively. "I know that! That's why I'm a little ashamed."

"You should be. How could you be so irresponsible?"

"Are you trying to convince me that you're not stuffy and uptight, because you're doing a horrible job."

"I'm sorry," Lily said. "It's my tooth. I swear, I'm less of a bitch when I'm not in constant dental pain."

"I don't know if I believe you." but he was smiling. "I'll have to meet you later and see for myself."

"Good. You can give me my verbal sparring and I can dazzle you with my normally winning personality."

He grinned. "It's a date."

Her buzzer went off then, startling them both. "Laundry's done," she said, hopping off the counter. To her surprise, he followed, helping her unload her washer.

"That's nice of you," she said as he tossed some of her things into the nearest dryer.

"I assure you, this is completely self-serving." to prove his point, he picked up a pair of her more daring knickers. He dangled them from one of his fingers. "I just wanted to see your underthings."

she snatched them from him, hitting him in the arm. "Perv"

He laughed as she threw her knickers into the dryer. "You've got quite the arm, Evans."

"My sister was a bit of a bully growing up," she explained. "What's your excuse, perv?"

He shrugged. "I went to boarding school."

"Oh, wow, a rich kid." she rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, leaning against the counter, the picture of ease.

"Maths major, rich kid, boarding school student – it's no wonder the sight of you pisses me off." But she was joking. she leaned against the counter too, her arm brushing his.

"The sight of me bothers you? Usually girls don't complain." he ruffled his hair to drive the point home.

"Someone needs to slap you in the face one of these days." she teased. "Put you in your place."

"Care to be a volunteer?" he asked, looking down at her.

"You'd let me slap you?" She wasn't averse to the idea.

"Honestly? I doubt there's anything I _wouldn't_ let you do to me."

Lily blushed all the way to her roots. She broke eye contact, looking down at her feet. "Oh."

"Was that too far?" he asked. "I'm not the best at reading a room or knowing when to shut up. Actually, I probably misread this entire situation." he pushed himself away from the counter. "Do you want me to leave? Because if you do, I'll-"

"Shut it," she said, looking back up at him. She was still blushing. There she was standing there with a total stranger, looking a mess and acting a brat, and he still wanted to flirt with her. She wasn't used to being flirted with so openly. Boys were usually hesitant with her, always assuming she was a prude, afraid they'd scare her away.

She found his honesty refreshing.

"It's alright," she told him.

"It's alright?"

"Yes."

"As in 'I'll tolerate it' or 'I'm into it'? Because those are different things-"

"I'm into it," she laughed at the way his face lit up. "At least right now. Who knows how I'll feel when my tooth doesn't ache and your wit returns. Maybe I'll hate you completely."

"I'm willing to take that risk," he said. he sat back onto the counter. "You're going to the dentist Monday?"

she nodded.

"Then let's go to the dining hall together on Tuesday. We can start all over."

"Will you even recognize me if I don't look a complete mess?" she asked, sitting down too.

"You don't look a mess," he told her. "You look beautiful."

She snorted, and her jaw pulsated in pain. "You're only saying that because I may have agreed to go on a date with you."

"I assure you, I would think you're beautiful, even if you turned me down." his voice was so earnest that Lily felt compelled to believe him

She was starting to think that James meant everything he said.

"Alright, Potter, I'll believe you. For now."

"I can work with that," he beamed. he reached out, fingers slipping through her hair. her breath hitched. "You have lovely hair, really. I've never seen hair this shade."

"That's because everyone else with it has the good sense to dye it another color." She reached out, grabbing at his hair too. "What about you? Don't you own a comb?"

he laughed. "Nah, it's fruitless. nothing can tame it."

"I bet I could," she said, running both of her hands though his hair now.

"How's that?" he asked. She felt his free hand running up her side.

"Magic," she said. "I'm absolutely magic when it comes to hair styling."

"Magic, huh?" he was leaning closer, his glasses slipping down his nose again. "Care to show me?"

She released his hair, moving to push his glass back up his face. "Not now," she said. She let out a laugh at his dejected expression. "Don't look too sad, Potter. It's mainly because my jaw hurts so bad that if you kissed me now I'd forever associate you with excruciating pain."

He pulled away from her, dropping his hands to his sides. "Mostly?"

"It's also because it's nearly three in the morning, I just met you, and I'm a little peeved about the whole knickers thing." she allowed. "We'll try again, when we're both our best and sunniest selves. see if I still want to kiss you then."

"You will," he told her confidently. "I assure you, you will."

"So sure of yourself," she chastised.

"I'm right, though. You will."

He was right. When Lily met his Tuesday night to walk to the dining hall her first thought was that her sleep deprived aching head hadn't imagined how attractive he was. the second thought was that she very much wanted to kiss him.

but she wasn't going to let him know that. not yet, anyway.


End file.
